Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

 Public service announcement! If you haven't yet discovered the delights of South Africa's premier dance band, the name of the group is pronounced "emm eye see", not Mike! This time MIC really their stride and deliver the album they've threatened to unload on us since they started! Their last outing 'Superhuman" (we'll forget the detour of 'Acoustic') set the scene for this sonically superb set of fabulous Europop dance and this time they've excelled themselves. In fact it recently won a South African music award for the best contemporary dance album of the year! Their line of attack is to set  intriguing lyrics to a selection of kicking dance beats and hook people in with their high musical standards. Kitchen-sink busy production values keep everything interesting with loads of samples, layers of vocals, and frenetic beats. Whether it's the pounding shouathon of 'Kids', or the dubby, clubby, trancy feel of 'Crazee' or the pure pop feel of 'Julia's Prayer' MIC are at home. The opening double punch of 'Yuppyland' and 'Millennium' give the album an immediate, futuristic finger-on-the-pulse feel as well as setting the scene with their distinctive brand of pulsating dance music. Immediately you're hooked ! It's only when you get to 'Comforter' that the band nail their spiritual colours to the mast but in the context of the overall themes explored here, it's enough! As usual MIC give us a pile of remixes and the mobile mix of 'Yuppyland' with its phone messages is great fun. 'Caffee Latte' revisits previous work and it's worth checking out just to hear the final vocal collapse with laughter! In terms of invention, this band deserve to be up there with WWMTand Raxe, they're going great guns in other parts of Europe. It only has to be a matter of time before they really explode here in the UK. Grab this and get to it !

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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